The present invention relates to training devices, and more specifically to simulators of radiation detectors. The invention provides a means by which operators, or operators-in-training, of Radiac equipment or like radiation detectors, may polish or acquire their skills.
The Services and other professional fields require performance by personnel from time to time in or near radiation-hazardous environments. Radiac equipment provides an operational means for detecting radiation contamination on such personnel and their clothing. But, for such equipment to provide a positive detection, the personnel or his/her clothing must be contaminated.
Training in the operational environment is therefore inappropriate. It is far better to simulate the hazard than to unnecessarily expose trainee and subject personnel to contamination. The environment remains safe to personnel if simulation is employed; and, if the simulation is realistic, the training will not suffer.
The most significant previous device for training in a non-hazardous environment uses a low-power radio transmitter. The transmitter is the alpha radiation contamination, and the receiver is the detector. By carefully choosing the transmitter's emission and the receiver's sensitivity, the simulated detector can be made to respond in a fashion similar to operational equipment, for the singular point on the subjects clothing in which the transmitter is hidden. Costs are usually considered excessive to duplicate the transmitter at a variety of points on the subject's clothing and, as a result, realism suffers. In addition, such transmitters are electronic equipment, which makes them subject to power failure and rough handling, in addition to a finite life.
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of previous devices by using magnets in a manner that will be hereinafter disclosed. Magnets have been used before to produce electrical signals, as represented by U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,160 to Von Borcke, wherein magnetic field dependent semiconductors are arranged adjacent to each other on one pole of a magnet. As an iron member is drawn from covering relationship of one semiconductor to covering relationship of the other, the magnetic field changes and the semiconductors respond by generating electrical signals if connected in an electrical circuit. Non-contact sensing is represented by U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,204 to Holmgren et al, wherein the distance between an electromagnetic sensitive, inductive transducer and an object is sensed by a signal phase network formed with the transducer and a bridge circuit comparator coupled to the network and a reference signal. And, indicating devices that are responsive to a changing magnetic field are represented by U.S. Pat. No. 2,876,415 to R. C. Hoff, wherein increases in the permeance of the circuit across the gap between poles of a horseshoe magnet cause a decrease in the maxwells in the flux field. Such a decrease in flux permits a mechanical arrangement of spring and lever to close a switch to a lamp.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved training device for detecting simulated alpha radiation contamination, and to do so by adopting and using one or more magnets in a new and novel manner and arrangement for simulation.